Advertising world has lot of jargons difficult to understand for beginners. RPM, CPM, CTA and CTR are some of the popular terms you will be hearing frequently when using programs like AdSense and Google Ads. Among other terms, CTR is the common term used in advertising as well as general SEO world. In this article, we will explore the basics of what is CTR and how to calculate with examples.
What is Click Through Rate?
CTR stands for Click Through Rate and is a measurement of how an ad displayed on a webpage is performing. Generally CTR is the percentage value measured using the below formula:
CTR = (Number of clicks / Number of page views or impressions) * 100
Here impression is the number of ad requests that resulted in showing ads on the site.
Types of CTR
CTR is calculated in three different aspects:
- Page CTR
- Ad CTR
- Ad Request CTR
Example of Click Through Rate Calculation
Let us take a practical example of a webpage (Page A) displaying a display Ad A from Google AdSense program with the following statistics for a day. The assumption here is that all ad requests were successfully returned ads which means number of ad impressions is equal to number of ad requests.
- Daily page views of Page A = 1000
- Number of clicks on Ad A = 10
- Number of ad impressions of Ad A = 700
Below is the CTR %:
- Page A CTR = (10/1000)*100 = 1%
- Ad A CTR = (10/700)*100 = 1.43%
Since number of ad requests is equal to number of ad impressions “Ad Request CTR = Ad CTR”.
How to Check CTR in AdSense?
All types of CTRs are available under “Performance Reports” section of Google AdSense account as a filtering metric. Webmasters can choose the required filters to create custom reports.
Note: Google moved all three types of CTRs under “Custom” metrics in Google AdSense reporting and keep the general CTR available under standard metrics.
Importance of CTR
Click through rate is an important factor that decides the revenue generated from the ads. The high the CTR the high the revenue, indicating the ads are placed more effectively on the site. Whereas the low CTR indicates the improvement needed on ad placement or the need of filtering ads to show relevant ads for the content on the site.
Very high click through rate is an alarming factor for both publishers and advertisers indicating some illegitimate clicks are happening. Publishers can stop displaying the ads as an immediate measure and check for further action while Google automatically revert the amount of invalid clicks at each payment cycle. Failing to take necessary action on high CTR may also end up in Google banning the AdSense account due to high number of suspicious clicks.
CTR for AdSense Link Unit Ads:
AdSense link unit ads are different from general text and display ads. The CTR of link unit ads is calculated based on the number of impressions of a page of ads that is displayed when the link unit ad is clicked. Learn more about AdSense link unit ads.
Page Click Through Rate (Page CTR)
Page CTR or page click through rate is the number of ad clicks divided by the number of page views used as a custom metric for measuring the performance of a page displaying Google AdSense ads.
Page CTR = (Number of Clicks / Number of Page Views) * 100
For example, when a Page A displaying two ads Ad A and Ad B with the following details:
- Daily page views = 1000
- Number of clicks on Ad A = 10
- Number of clicks on Ad B = 15
- Total clicks = 20
Below is how you can calculate the page click through rate of Page A:
Page CTR of Page A = (25/1000)*100 = 2.5%
Publishers can monitor the Page CTR under “Performance Reports” section of their AdSense account.
Ad Click Through Rate (Ad CTR)
Ad CTR or ad click through rate is a number of clicks on an ad displayed on a page divided by the number of ad impressions. Google AdSense program uses this as a custom metric to monitor the performance of an ad displayed on a web page of a publisher.
Ad CTR = (Number of Clicks / Number of Ad Impressions) * 100
For example, when a Page A displaying two ads Ad 1 and Ad 2 with the following details:
- Daily page views = 1000 (not needed to calculate Ad CTR)
- Number of ad impressions of Ad 1 = 700
- Number of ad impressions of Ad 2= 800
- Number of clicks on Ad 1 = 10
- Number of clicks on Ad 2 = 15
- Total clicks = 20
You can calculate the ad click through rate using the below method:
- Ad 1 CTR = (10/700)*100 = 1.43%
- Ad 2 CTR = (15/800)*100 = 1.88%
- Average ad CTR of the Page A = (25/(700+800))*100 = 1.67%
Publishers can monitor the Ad CTR under “Performance Reports” section of their AdSense account.
Ad Request Click Through Rate (Ad Request CTR)
Ad request click through rate is the number of ads clicked divided by the number of ad requests. Programs like Google AdSense use this as a custom metric to monitor the performance of an ad displayed on a web page of a publisher.
Ad Request CTR = (Number of Clicks / Number of Ad Requests) * 100
For example, when a Page A displaying an ad Ad 1 and Ad 2 with the following details:
- Daily page views = 1000 (not needed to calculate Ad Request CTR)
- Number of ad impressions of Ad 1 = 700 (not needed to calculate Ad Request CTR)
- Number of ad impressions of Ad 2= 800 (not needed to calculate Ad Request CTR)
- Number of ad requests of Ad 2 = 1000
- Number of ad requests of Ad 2 = 1000
- Number of clicks on Ad 1 = 10
- Number of clicks on Ad 2 = 15
- Total clicks = 20
You can calculate the ad request click through rate as below:
- Ad 1 request CTR = (10/1000)*100 = 1%
- Ad 2 request CTR = (15/1000)*100 = 1.5%
- Average ad request CTR of the Page A = (25/(1000+1000))*100 = 1.25%
Publishers can monitor the ad request click through rate under “Performance Reports” section of their AdSense account.
Query Click Through Rate (Query CTR)
Query CTR is a reporting term used in AdSense for measuring performance of an ad based on search queries. You can calculate query CTR using the below formula:
Query CTR = (Number of Clicks / Number of Search Queries) * 100
For example, if the total number of clicks received on a page is 10 from 1000 search queries then the query CTR = (10/1000)*100 = 1%.
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